Your Comments

No doubt the pretence, or should I say lies will be that this is to fight pollution and global warming. This government is desparate for cash as they drive our economy into recession and they see the motorist as an easy target. As the price of fuel increases the increase in tax take by the government increases in two areas:
Petroleum spirit duty which is added before the tanker leaves the fuel depot. VAT is then added to the basic cost of the fuel plus the petroleum spirit duty. A double tax to the motorist. Don't believe for one minute that it's to save the planet. It's to fill the ever increasing hole in this governments coffers.

I don't really mind another 2.35p on fuel AS LONG as it goes on improving the environment.

Burning fuel damages the environment, so it should be taxed. But the Government MUST spend this money on helping correct the damage that is done.

How much more tax are you going to squeeze out of us ?

Cars may be considered luxury items by some, however additionally they are also a necessary method of transportation for some, therefore a blanket ruling increasing the cost to every car owner simply doesn't make sense. By further increasing taxation, Gordon Brown will be further able to invest in public transport, improving the existing transport network, research into alternative fuels (not subsidised by or associated to existing fossil fuel producers - please see "Who killed the electric car", it's an eye-opener).

Maybe Gordon Brown will be investing the extra income generated by this additional hike in fuel prices and the subsequent tax increase into the NHS? Or perhaps it's going to Firefighters? The Police? Or maybe another invaluable public service provided to the population?

Ultimately, this is an opportunity for Gordon Brown to do something decent with a potentially large sum of cash. Okay, you can argue that we all pay income tax, then get taxed again on a number of levels - and you'd be quite right to do so - however it could very easily be put to very good use for the benefit of the nation and it's inhabitants.

If Gordon Brown chooses to squander the cash, or invest in other countries who perhaps have flagging economies at present then it's up to everyone who feels this is inappropriate to vote for another representative at the next general election.

Having just returned from France where they are paying the same in Euros as we are in Pounds for their diesel i.e., 65p/litre, I wonder quite why we are being made to pay more? One possible answer is that the French don't spend their money on wars that don't concern them, another is that the French are good at telling their government where to go if they don't like their actions! The idea that we should be priced off the roads is OK for some, those with loads of loot, and those living where there is good transport, but for those of us in semi rural/rural locations public transport is not a realistic option.

The only problem is the hike is FAR too small. We need to switch from unsustainable oil as quickly as possible to give us a head start when it really begins to run out, for ever. By developing a non-oil economy NOW we can gain a head start over more backwards and leftwards-leaning nations.

So no crocodile tears about this tiny increase. Let's all work together to get rid of oil sooner rather than later. We're all going to have to switch from cars eventually, probably over the next 10 years, so the sooner we learn to live without them the better.

I detest this government for their attacks on business and working people, but this, together with the smoking and foxhunting bans, show that even they get it right sometimes - though 20p would be better!

As a disabled driver I find this increase in the petrol price a burdon I will find hard to bear,my Motability car is my legs,without it I am stuck indoors and cannot attend my Adult Learning Class or my Art Club.
Somebody needs to take a long hard look at the consequences of increasing the tax on petrol,it could be the straw to break the camel's back and bring the downfall of Labour!THANK GOODNESS!!!!!!

Again lets take money off the motorist have they not already putting in the ground.
More money on fuel means higher food bills when is this party going to stop

what a con and a cheek does this guy ever pay for his own fuel, at least we knew mr brown was full of bullshit but this guy is JUST s**t.

Why I ask myself is one of my closest friends emigrating to New Zealand following two that have already gone? There will be no one left!!!, and it is not just taxes.

The increase in the price of fuel has already given the taxman extra revenues he was not expecting, or perhaps it was all planned. Any way it has gone far enough and the increase should be stopped

I find the government of this country is hell bent on taking as much tax out of us as possible. In France I pay approx 75p-80p a littre, so why, if we are in Europe we are not all treated fairly?

I am looking forward to selling up in this country and moving to France, a country that knows how to treat it's citizens. I find that Britain has lost the plot, it's no good saying the money goes to the Health Service because if it did it would be in a healthy state, instead it's on it's knees!

Does anyone know the contact details of the farmer who organised the last fuel protests? Dear God we need him now!

This is the same government who is offering its civil servants only 2.475% cost of living rise. This added fuel cost is going to, on its own, destroy any potential gain through increased motoring costs, nevermind the fact that inflation in other areas had already taken the cost of living increase and thrown it down the pan!
On a recent journey across Europe there was not one nation of the nine that we travellled through that had Petrol or Diesel as expensive as here in Britain.
In Canada, a nation with more then seven times (in terms of miles of distance), Petrol and Diesel are slightly more that half that of the UK. Consider the climatic implications of the Canadian situation and try to justify this to the voting public Mr Chancellor.

I think its disgusting that they expect people to pay this im a single parent in long term sick and its hard enough trying to cope with the rise of every day things like food clothes and household bills let alone run my car with even more costs as it means a lot of people like mysef will have to take it from the money they use to buy food so its not really fair that children should have to suffer when we are in one of the poorest areas and people are already living in poverty. Just look at people whose jobs are care in the community where they use their cars to get from one client to the next and have to pay for fuel up front but on get a percentage of it back when claimed at the end of a tax year even though they have already paid tax on it through their wages. Life is getting more unbarable to cope with it no wonder there is so much hardship in this country and i really cannot see things get any better.

Well I'm afraid this is no surprise - to all you labour voters you had the chance to dump this government in the last election - but no you keep on getting fleeced just like the rest of us. The £1 a litre would have been a long way off if it had been left to normal shifts in inflation, world prices of a barrel of oil etc - but leave it to the good old labour government to milk the essential needs. Look what they did to pensions - please give somebody else the chance next time before the £2 a litre hits us!

As much as I agree with the majority of posts on this site, nothing will change.
As far as I can see at the moment this website and the RHA (The Road Haulage Association) are the only ones covering the new duty increase.
The RHA sent a letter to Alistair Darling calling upon him to freeze the increase a couple of weeks ago, but thats about as far as they go.
Without the extra muscle that the RHA have there will be no blockades and no protests so no TV coverage and no change.
Individuals such as us all saying the same like minded things on this one website will unfortunately get us no where.
If anyone reading this has connections with the media maybe you should point them in this direction in order to get the groundswell of opinon out to a wider audience and on to the news and then start the ball rolling.
We are too late for October, but isn't there another 2 pence increase due next April?

The Labour Party have always had a philosophy of 'tax, tax, tax: spend, spend, spend'. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't fritter away their ill-gotten gains on wasteful schemes, lost causes and, of course, their own pay rises and financial benefits.

So long as the population of this country continues to vote for this party I cannot foresee any change for the better and, if you did/do vote Labour, for heaven's sake don't you dare to complain about them!

The government is using climate change as a way of introducing stealth tax to make up for the inept way they have handled the economy: and guess who is being hit the hardest yet again - the motorist. I am disabled and need my vehicle to get around and to transport my rather heavy wheel chair. I live in the "sticks" , as I have always done, and we do not have a public transport system at all. Must I, and many thousands like me, finish our lives in abject poverty and isolation just to line the pockets of this corrupt and self-adoring government.

We have absolutely no choice but to pay this; at current prices I would jump at the chance of proactive measures to redeploy local authority workers who, were previously transferred within larger regions, close to home. Rather than saving the planet the government chooses to make us all feel guilty about using vehicles in order to feel justified in raising taxes and maximising the revenue collected

I live in Devon where public transport is both expensive and not viable for getting to work I therefore rely totally on using my car to do a 50 mile round trip each day.
My wages don't keep going up to compensate for the fuel increases so if it carries on I will end up having to leave my job beacuse I can't afford to run the car to get there.
This applies to many working people. I can understand why people are leaving this country in their thousands.

The way to bring inflation down is to reduce tax, not increase it.
It is now time we protested this increase vociferously.

Dearest Gordon, Surely there must be a limit to the extent that you can continue to bash the motorist. Congestion charges, fuel taxes, VER increases, Safety(sic) camera revenue. All tolerable if you were able to offer a viable alternative. I recently attempted my first go on the train for about ten years - six hours to do a return journey that takes an hour and a half, at worst, in the car.
I live in the Welsh mountains, miles from the nearest rail line.
Drivers are voters, too.

What planet are some people on? They consider 'public transport' a viable alternative to the car outside London????

I have found that using public transport between Bristol and Cariff costs so much more and takes up so much MORE time that I am out of pocket and dont get to see my kids after work. Dream on AND GET VIABLE therefore. Unless crappy 'standing up for an hour' public transport is at least CHEAPER than driving my 1.5 ton 40mpg BMW to work you havent got a chance. Then add cost/time of taxi to ssation, hatered of cycles on trains, and you are all in cloud cuckoo land.

SORT WHAT YOU PREACH - I AM a cyclist too!!

Total balls.

D

We are crippled by taxes on fuel, not fuel prices per se, and it is an increase again in taxes, so to stop buying one supplier's fuel will have no difference on the eventual outcome that we want to see - a reduction in tax.

The blockades of 2001 were very effective and I could support that again. We are forever rolling over and doing everything that this government wants - it's time we started to really make our feelings known - now and at the next election, which cannot come soon enough!

I think the british motorist pay,s enough tax on fuel at the momenat already.
E G JEWELL

My wife and I have been planning to move out to the Canaries for the last 16 months, and now that's EXACTLY what we are going to do! Petrol there is about 40p per litre, ciggies are 83p for 20 and community charge is about £100... PER YEAR! We're off! Someone said it earlier... block all the roads again, and let's all leave this damn country to sink!

As the Motorist is now a major source of money for the Government to spend on everything except the roads,perhaps more pressure should be put on to get value for money.The roads are a disgrace and many well overdue for resurfacing. Less than 10% of the $45 billion collected in various taxes fines etc is used. A billion extra for roads would make all the difference.

I read with regret the postings from people who believe that the car is inherently evil. I have Family members who live in rural areas of this country and they do not have the luxury of 'popping down' to their local supermarket when they run out of milk or bread.
My Mother, for example, lives approx 8 miles from her 'local' Supermarket and with Rural buses running at ridiculous times (less than 1 every 90 mins) and the walking involved getting from home to the Bus Stop (approx 1/2 mile), let alone the walking fully laden with shopping back to the return stop, she is unable to use it. I hasten to add that as a Pensioner who isn't as mobile as she used to be she has no choice other than 'shop' once a month due to the ever increasing costs of running a small car.
I agree that City living should negate the requirment to have a car, as most things are not to far from your front door or even get delivered, but lets not forget that not everyone has this 'luxury'.
Maybe if we all thought about the wider picture and not our own little world we would see that the majority of the population do not have access to either decent public transport or the ability to afford transport of their own. How should these people attain the same standard of living as the rest of us?
A petrol increase would cause untold misery to hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have to use their cars through neccesity. Maybe we should call for tax breaks for those who live more than 2 miles from a Tesco/Sainsbury store? Now how ridiculous does that sound?

The man must be nuts. In order to pay tax, I have to work. In order to work, I have to travel by car. He should be allowing tax relief on fuel used to travel to work to pay the rest of his taxes.

I am only able to do very few miles in my car since I retired. My mother is 101 years old and I rely on the car to take her to various appointments. My brother is 78 and I find I have to help him with the purchase of petrol. I t was an election disaster 10 years ago and it will not get better for sometime.5TC5G

Don't vote for him again.

I live in the country - we have no bus service. No car = no go to work, no shop, no social life!!
Once again, again, again, the government are hitting the Shire Counties with disproportionate taxation. They have increased Shropshire's council taxes, fire brigade leviesand add-ons to the benefit of the West Midlands and now we've been clobbered again.

All you urbanites who have bus services, be grateful!!

Its about time the Government restored financing to the Shire Counties and increased taxation on the city high earners.

In the meantime leave our fuel prices alone. Cars are ESSENTIAL to us.

You would be a lot better off taxing the one child, in town, school runs.

It would appear some people are actually naive enough to believe that the government reinvest the tax on fuel on transport!! They have got a grossly over budget olympics to pay for. Of course the number of cars on the roads increase whilst the govt keep building houses on greenfield sites with no industry to support the new population and no decent public transport. Our public transport is a joke - just like those that impose the price hikes.

government sort out your act.

This is freaking ridiculous !!!!! I keep my car topped up with Shell V-Power and BP Optimax, Diesel. On average 1.02 - 1.05 ppl just to keep my engine runnig tip top with less harmful gases. So another 2.5p is crazy especially with fuel duty now well over 88% ; last time I checked. Why should I/WE be penalized when there are better things to tax.

As a smoker I feel that cigarettes should be a minimum of £10 for 20. This way smokers like myself will have no problem quitting, The added benefit of this would be long term rather than short term and will save the NHS BILLIONS. Also Tax spirits something wicked. You wont though will you because you and your "colleagues" get it cheap (I always wondered WHY you very very rarely increase the tax on this but now I know) and get chauffeured home in huge petrol guzzling cars.

Could we please get someone with common sense and ethics in power next time.

When are we going to vote this goverment out of power, they are the worst goverment for stealth taxes and ripping of the motorist! No further tax increases on our fuel!!